Axis of Bribery

This story came out yesterday, and we just haven’t gotten to it: France’s former Ambassador to the U.N., who also served as Kofi Annan’s “special adviser,” has been indicted by French authorities for “influence peddling and corruption of foreign officials.” The official, Jean-Bernard Merimee, is alleged to have received kickbacks in the form of oil allocations from Saddam Hussein as part of the Oil-for-Food fraud.
Merimee is one of those imposing, sophisticated Continental bureaucrats of whom John Kerry and the Democrats in general are so much in awe. It is people like Merimee who would have decided, in a Kerry administration, whether the United States had passed the “global test.” Thankfully, that day never arrived, and Merimee won’t do much “testing” from a French prison.
You have to wonder, though. Annan’s son and “special adviser” were corrupted by Saddam, along with several other U.N. officials–and those are just the ones known so far. On the French end, Merimee, the U.N. ambassador; Interior Minister Charles Pasqua; Patrick Maugein, a friend of Jacques Chirac, and others apparently were on Saddam’s payroll.
But it didn’t matter! The French government assures us that there was “‘no link’ between French diplomats’ alleged contacts with Saddam’s regime and France’s decision not to support the U.S.-led war in 2003 that toppled the Iraqi dictator.”
Well, that’s certainly a relief. Sometimes when people pay bribes they expect results in return. But Saddam apparently wasn’t that kind of guy.